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Druid
This article is a description of the character class '''Druid'. For a description of the role of druids within the lore of Warcraft, see Druid lore. ''For related articles, see Category:Druids. Overview The '''Druid' is a class that combines the essence of four classes: priests, warriors, rogues, and (to a lesser extent) mages into one class. It is an innovation in MMORPGs: A Hybrid class that is not a Hybrid! Unlike hybrid classes, most of a Druid's abilities are locked within their various forms, which they take advantage of through shape-shifting. A Druid can perform any of four roles in a group but depending on how a Druid has spent his/her Talent Points, and what gear they are equipped with when entering combat, they will be more confined to one or two roles at any given time unlike true Hybrids, who can access all their abilities at any time. The core build of a Druid consists of three single-target mage-like damage spells, one multiple-target mage-like spell, three single-target priest-like healing spells, one multiple-target healing spell, a Cat Form containing basic damaging special moves similar to a rogue, a Bear Form capable of giving a Druid armor and health that competes with the Warrior class in plate armor, poison and curse cleansing spells, and a range of other spells and forms usable outdoors/underwater or on beasts and dragonkin. *Balance Druids specialize in their assortment of damage spells and special abilities including an additional Moonkin Form. The enhancements to their balance spells in combination to their Moonkin Form gives them a unique flavor akin to that of an arcane warrior and come from specializing in the Balance talent tree. *Feral Druids specialize in their Feral Forms to perform multiple melee roles, each form has its own wide array of abilities and is further enhanced by talents spent in the Feral talent tree. **By using Bear Form the druid can serve as a tank using rage similar to a warrior, allowing him to gain and hold aggro from multiple mobs, mitigate damage, stun opponents, strike multiple opponents, etc. **While in Cat Form the druid, using energy, can do large amounts of melee DPS second only to a rogue, and also allowing him stealth, several surprise attacks, Damage over Time (DoT) attacks, and powerful finishing moves. *Restoration Druids specialize in their assortment of healing spells and special abilities including an additional Tree of Life Form. They are considered the second-most powerful healers in the game, however although Rebirth, the Druid resurrection spell, has the unique characteristic of allowing in-combat resurrection, it is considerably more limited in other respects than the resurrection abilities of both the Priest and Shaman. A Druid can play the part of any of the four primary party roles: tank, healer, melee-DPS and ranged-DPS. In any of these roles a properly specced Druid can fulfill the task almost as well and in some cases better (depending upon the player) than a member of the primary class themselves, and can moreover switch these roles as needed, offering tremendous adaptability and flexibility, which is the true hallmark of this class. The Druid is a difficult, indeed perhaps the most challenging class to master, but no other class is as versatile as the Druid. Because of this versatility, plus unique spells and abilities ( ex: Innervate and combat resurrection and one of the best buffs in the game (Mark of the Wild and later Gift of the Wild)) Druids should be welcome in any group. Druids, taken from the latest US server census, are currently among the least played classes, especially on the Horde. The reason can only be speculated upon. The fact that the Druid class is only available to two races does theoretically limit their numbers. Though in the Alliance Faction, Night Elves are the most popular race by a large margin, never-the-less the Druid remains an underplayed class, even though it may arguably be the strongest solo-class in the game. The rarity of Druids can be partially traced to several factors. As previously noted, the Druid is an extremely difficult class to master. Given the relatively low density of Druids in the WoW population, it logically follows then that there are fewer examples existent of a well played Druid for other players to have experience of and emulate. Because of their ability to play multiple roles, Druids tend to require several complete sets of gear. This can be a very difficult time-, space-, skill-, and resource-consuming activity. Unlike most, if not all of the other classes, a Druid does not begin with some skill, spell, or ability in most every area they will one day be proficient in, they acquire utterly new branches of ability when they advance to certain specific levels, and is therefore a class which truly blooms at an advanced age. This can make the early game for the Druid difficult and frustrating. However, once mastered, the Druid is a formidable class with much to contribute and can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable to play. Another nice feature about playing druids is their ability to travel faster: *Through a quest at level 16, druids gain their aquatic form allowing them to travel at normal speed under water and also allowing them to breathe underwater, all other classes depend on potions or spells to be able to do this. *At level 21, through the use of two talent points into Feral Swiftness, the cat form is 30% faster than normal running speed, and this can be boosted to 50%, 60%, or 70% (level 26, 46, and 65, respectively) for 15 seconds using the dash ability. *At level 30 the travel form is gained. All this much before the other classes get access to a mount that allows them to move faster, travel form is 40% faster than normal running speed. *Druids also gain the ability to fly (Flight Form) in Outland 2 levels before the other classes do through their flight form ability. In addition, unlike any other flying mount, the Druid Flight Form is an Instant Cast spell, allowing the Druid to avoid falling damage (if not in combat) by shifting to flight before hitting the ground. As such, druids are masters of escaping to fight another day in the case that battles take a turn for the worse. This also makes them very desirable for running a flag in PVP events. Races The Druid class can be played by the following races: * Night Elves * Tauren Weapons & Armor Druid]] Armor Druids are able to wear Cloth and Leather armor only. See Druid Sets for a list of druid armor sets. Weapons Druids can learn to fight with: *Staff *One-handed Mace *Two-handed Mace *Dagger *Fist weapon Depending on race, druids have different starting weapons: * Night elf druids start out being able to use staves and daggers; * Tauren druids start out with staves and one-handed maces. Both races can later pay a trainer to teach them how to use fist weapons, both kinds of maces and daggers. *Druids can never use shields. This is most likely because of the Druid class's bear form; the Dire Bear form in particular increases armor by 400%. With a 2000AC shield, for example, this would mean 11000AC from a shield (12080 with max thick hide). The armor bonus is intended to make up for the lack of block and parry; some say that it is imbalanced while others say that it is totally reasonable. *Druids can never learn how to dual wield. This means you can only use a weapon in your main hand (e.g. If you pay to learn fist-weapons, you can use right-handed brass knuckles, but not left-handed (off-hand) brass knuckles.). "Held in off-hand" items can still be used if the Druid uses a one-handed weapon. Abilities Through the use of various abilities and spells, the Druid can perform several roles in any group, including healing, nuking, tanking, and melee DPS. Forms The Druid's most notable ability is shapeshifting into different forms. Bear Form and Aquatic Form are obtained by doing Druid Quests. The other forms are purchased from a class trainer. For a full list of Druid Feral Form abilities see Druid Abilities. The act of shapeshifting into or out of any form removes most movement slowing or preventing effects. It will also dispell Polymorph. While shapeshifted into Bear, Aquatic, Cat, Travel, Flight, or Dire Bear form: *The Druid cannot be polymorphed. *The Druid is considered a beast. Spells and abilities which can only be used on humanoids will not work against a shapeshifted druid and spells and abilities which work on beasts (such as Hibernate and Scare Beast) will work on them. *The Druid may only use equipped items with "Use:" such as trinkets. Bag items cannot be used (potions, and other consumables). In Bear, Dire Bear and Cat form, the following are also true: *The druid is immune to mana-reducing abilities such as Viper Sting and Mana Burn. Mana regeneration still continues at normal rate. *Items with a "Chance on hit" portion and "Chance on hit" enchants such as Enchant Weapon - Crusader and Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing will not activate. However "Chance on hit" effects built into armour will proc such as the Green Whelp Armor. *Weapon DPS and weapon +damage enchants are not used. The weapon damage bonus from the Might of Cenarius ring does work, however. *Items with an "Equip:" do work in forms, such as the Naglering's 3 points of arcane damage when hit and the Darkmoon cards that proc on melee damage, Darkmoon Card: Heroism and Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom. In Moonkin and Tree of Life form the following are true: *Like the others, Moonkin and Tree of Life forms make the druid immune to Polymorph, and shifting in and out of them will remove moving de-buffs. *Unlike the others, they are not considered a beast, therefore, they are also immune to any beast crowd control, such as Hibernate. They are, however, Humanoid and Elemental, respectively. *Moonkin can be affected by any ability or spell that can affect Humanoids, except Polymorph (Sap and others will work). Same case with Tree of Life, except it will be vulnerable to Elemental dependent abilities (such as Banish). *Weapon procs and enchants will proc under any of these two forms. *The druid will not be immune to any mana-reducing abilities on these forms. There is also a Druid Quests page with an outline for the level 10 (Bear) and level 16 (Aquatic) quests. The druid has the unique ability to shapeshift into various forms. These forms can be used to improve combat or to increase travel speed. Spells In addition to healing spells, Druids also have excellent buffs in the game. They also have some limited damage spells, making them (if properly geared and with proper talent point allocation) just as powerful, however being less versatile than Mage or Warlock spells for example. See the Druid abilities page for further details. Talents Druid Talents are split into three categories: * Balance - Focus on Damage Spells to make the druid an efficient caster DPSer. * Feral Combat - Focus on using the druid forms (Cat Form, Bear Form, Dire Bear Form) in the aspects of tanking (Bear/Dire Bear Form) and Damage dealing (Cat Form). * Restoration - Focus on Healing Spells to make the druid an efficient healer. Its important to note that the Druid talent trees are designed to alter all aspects of the druid. A few Feral Combat talents modify maximum mana (balance and healing). Also, some Balance talents modify cost of healing spells, as well as melee damage dealing and melee clearcasting talent. Finally, some Restoration talents modify mana regeneration during casting (balance) and talents to give the druid rage/energy when he switches into either Cat or Bear Form. There are good talent calculators that can be found here: WoWhead Talent Calculator (fast), Official Blizzard site, Panda Hideout, WoW Vault, ThottBot and Merciless. See the Druid Talents and Druid Talent Analysis pages for further details. End-Game Expectations It is expected that with the greatly improved non-healing itemization and talents in the Burning Crusade expansion, the Druid class will have viable end game playability in any of its three talent branches. Depending on your guild and skill, some Druids have been accepted in Feral and Balance forms. Feral druids are prized for their ability to tank one boss, then dps another without much sacrifice in their abilities; something protection warriors cannot adapt to as well. See Also *Druid Forms *Druid Spells and Abilities *Druid Talent Analysis *Druid Tactics *Druids as Tank *Druid Quests *Starting a Druid *Alamo *Useful macros/Druid *Druid sets External Links *The druid guide *Tangedyn's Excellent Druid Resources *Burning Crusade Druid Talent Preview *Burning Crusade Druid Spell Preview *Druid Movement Speed Table Category:Classes Druid